The Avengers Opens to $80 Milliion on Friday

If, for some unfathomable reason you were concern that Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” would not meet expectations when it opens this week, you can, uh, stop now. The superhero movie grossed a whopping $80.5 million in its Friday debut, on its way to what industry insiders are predicting a $175-$200 million weekend.

Although its Friday opening wasn’t a record (the last Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ claims that with $91 million), the Marvel film did do gangbuster business even if you were to take out the Thursday midnight screenings and just counted Friday, where the film was responsible for an impressive 80% of all ticket sales. On Friday numbers, “The Avengers” did break the previous record holder, “Spider-Man 3’s” $49.8 million

Apparently the fact that fans weren’t packing in the midnight screenings as they did for Harry Potter indicates there are still fans waiting to catch up on the film over the weekend, giving it that rosy outlook of anywhere from $175-$200 million. We’ll find out estimated numbers when Sunday rolls around, and final numbers on Monday (if, you know, you’re interested in that sort of thing).